Hastings pier destroyed by fire

Emergency services say over 95 per cent of the structure has been ruined, with only a burnt-out shell of the old promenade and former grand pavilion remaining.

More than 60 firefighters and eight engines have spent the night fighting the blaze after a member of the public alerted two patrolling police officers at 1am. They were transported to the pier using RNLI lifeboats.

Simon Rose, a spokesman for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said “It’s a very historic building and landmark for Hastings. The priority for the firefighters is to preserve as much of the structure as they can to see if something can be done with it in the future.”

Two men, aged 18 and 19 and both from nearby St Leonards, were arrested on the seafront shortly after the fire started.

The pier has been shut since 2006 because of safety concerns. When it was opened on Britain’s first Bank Holiday on August 5th 1872, the Earl of Granville feted it as “a peerless pier – a pier without a peer”. It was the vision of Britain’s leading pier designer Eugenius Birch and was closely modelled on Brighton’s famous West Pier which has also been a ghost pier for years, after being destroyed by a fire and has now largely collapsed into the sea.

Hastings heyday

In its heyday, Hastings Pier was 910ft long. It was built with cast-iron columns and a lattice girder framework, which supported the wooden decking along which those taking the sea air could promenade.

In those days visitors used to take paddle-steamers from the pier on trips across the Channel. A section of the pier was deliberately demolished during the Second World War to prevent German troops using it as a landing platform, but it was rebuilt and enjoyed popularity in the 60s as a venue for concerts, hosting the likes of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley.

Local campaigners to save the pier had had their hopes raised this summer when Hastings Borough Council agreed to proceed with a compulsory purchase from the pier’s absent owners after a study showed the structure could be made safe for £3 million.

The Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust had invited architects to submit designs, though after last night’s disaster any plans will have to go back to the drawing board if Hastings is to avoid the fate of many of Victorian Britain’s other derelict piers.